CM: When did Corvette people start collecting them?
Martel: When Chevrolet started making terrible Corvettes in the 1970s. The 270-horse 454 of 1974 wouldn’t outrun a new Suburban today. And then they dropped the big-block in 1975, which had to be the landmark bad year. No big-block and catalytic converters. Corvettes became collectable when they quit building the fast ones. You could drop back ten years and it wasn’t horribly expensive to buy a Sting Ray with a fast motor. People were looking at the old 1966-67 big-block cars. They were pretty popular, or you could get a 1968-71 Shark with a 427.

CM: Are those 1970’s Corvettes anything to own today?
Martel: The cheaper cars today, believe it or not, are the 1984 through 1990 models.

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